“Safeguarding the right to education and ensuring schools are safe in areas affected by armed conflict are key priorities”. This was stated during the webinar “Children affected by Armed Conflict: safeguarding their right to education and ensuring schools are safe” by Deputy Foreign Minister Marina Sereni, who added: “Covid-19 is exposing children in armed conflicts to further threats, preventing them from accessing education in war-torn areas and thus making them even more vulnerable”.
“Ensuring education,” Sereni explained, “is a powerful tool for promoting peace and preventing conflict, as stated in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. It is therefore a moral imperative to put an end to the unacceptable violations of children’s rights in war zones. Yesterday we celebrated International Women’s Day, an important occasion to reflect on the challenges we still face in terms of women’s empowerment. But the fight for this goal also includes ensuring that girls and young women have access to education.”
“In order to stop violence against young and very young people in armed conflicts, Italy believes it is necessary to involve the international criminal justice system. Indeed, we need to take concrete action if we really want to achieve greater respect for international humanitarian law and human rights, and at the same time safeguard schools in armed conflicts. Italy, alongside the United Nations and all stakeholders, intends to promote effective and coherent solutions to protect children and guarantee them a better future. But we must act quickly, because – concluded Sereni – the pandemic is worsening an already very negative picture”.
The event on the margins of the 46th UN Session of the Human Rights Council was organised by the Network of Universities for Children in Armed Conflict in collaboration with the Italian Mission to the United Nations in Geneva.
